October & November Reading Wrap-Up | Including Victober Reads

[@mattkean1128]

It's atypical Dickens, but A Christmas Carol is wonderful. I'm under read with him as well.

[@mckenziekate]

@@mattkean1128 yes I was planning on giving that another go this Christmas season!

[@gemgerm]

Dombey and Son almost put me a slump last month so I stopped reading it. Maybe I’ll revisit it but….😂

[@mckenziekate]

@@gemgerm lol glad to hear I wasn’t it’s only victim but I’m also sorry you didn’t love a book u picked up haha

[@joelharris4399]

Well, well, well 😃. McKenzie decides to drop by for the Christmas season🎄Welcome back!

[@mckenziekate]

@@joelharris4399 haha thank you 😂

[@joelharris4399]

@mckenziekate 🙏🫶✌️

[@scoutdarpy4465]

Great video, McKenzie. Hope you have a great Christmas! My reading has been pretty much the same, lol, but I did increase it by a little. Currently on 26 books (half are rereads), so I'm keeping pretty busy. Writing projects are going well, and I should be finishing one soon. Maybe I'll get it out to a publisher. Latin studies are still trucking along - maybe this time next year I'll be reading Virgil, lol, fingers crossed. Also been going to the gym haha. The dream bod is only 10 years away lol. That's my little update. Have an awesome holiday!

[@mckenziekate]

@@scoutdarpy4465 omg 26 books! YOU MADMAN! Lolol That’s so awesome that you will be sending some of your work into publishers! Best of luck to you there and AYYYYYYY!! Gym bro!!!!! Love it

[@mckenziekate]

@@scoutdarpy4465 I hope you have a great holiday season as well 🌲

[@scoutdarpy4465]

​@@mckenziekate The gym is an interesting place. I noticed that most of the buff dudes had this constant look of constipation on their faces. Prolly too much protein powder. 😆 I guess it goes with the whole swoll aesthetic. I have the same expression, so I guess it's meant that I get swoll too. I guess I'll just add bodybuilder to my resume. Seems the only logical thing to do at this point tbh.

[@carolovegoodcast8394]

I love your videos! 💕

[@mckenziekate]

@@carolovegoodcast8394 oh wow thank you so much for saying that! I hope you have a beautiful day 💜

[@annelies9494]

I like Dickens, but I can only take his writing in small portions. Two years ago I started reading his works according to the original monthly publication scheme and it is a wonderful experience just reading 3 chapters every month.

[@mckenziekate]

@@annelies9494 I have heard lots of people recommending that style of reading for his works. I feel like u are probably right in that it will make the reading experience that much nicer.

[@AgricultureSpecialists]

I also don't like the way Dickens writes a lot of his characters as caricatures, but I did think that Pip in Great Expectations was a very complex, well-rounded character. I've also heard that Dickens's later novels (after David Copperfield) tend to have more well-rounded main characters overall :)

[@mckenziekate]

@@AgricultureSpecialists thank you for this tip! I will not give up haha

[@cassiopeiathew7406]

I was way too busy last quarter and I didn’t read nearly as much as I would have liked to, I also started living on my own for the first time and I didn’t really account for how long commutes to university and cooking would take, so I’m so excited to be back for the holidays so that I can read more. I’m planning on reading Wuthering Heights and The Passion of GH. I really want to have a non-fiction year (except for one) next year to catch up on subjects I’m far weaker in than I would like to be so my reading list is pretty short but it’s what I feel like I can reasonably get to in 2025. -The Republic by Plato -The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt -The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser -The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio Paz -State and Revolution by Vladimir Lenin or Race, Gender and Class by Angela Davis -Civilization and it’s Discontents by Sigmund Freud -The Nichomachaen Ethics by Aristotle -The Complete Essays of Michel De Montaigne (read some)

[@bookishbianca]

It’s always interesting to hear other peoples sally Rooney rankings. I loved convos w friends, and thought normal people was good, really disliked beautiful world. Really excited to get to intermezzo. I’m also currently reading Tess of the durbervilles. Would you say you liked that book or was it a similar just “fine” feeling there too?

[@mckenziekate]

@@bookishbianca hello! Yes, I feel like everyone has such different opinions of Rooney novels which is really exciting and interesting. Yes, Tess was quite middling for me as well. How are you getting on with it?

[@bookishbianca]

​@@mckenziekate I love the nature writing like you mentioned, his prose is definitely the highlight of the book for me. im a little over 1/4 of the way through it so I don't have a fully formed opinion. I find things to enjoy when I pick it up, but there hasn't been a point where I'm ever itching to get back to the story or excited to know what happens next. hoping that will change as I get further in. but the quotes make my cold little heart feel warm. im making a reading vlog about it, but it's not up yet so here are my 2 current favs: "I suppose I am a bad fellow -- a damn bad fellow. I was born bad, and I have lived bad, and I shall die bad in all probability. But, upon my lost soul, I won't be bad towards you again, Tess." ^this is said by Alec so I don't believe him, but the language and sentiment just feels so raw and desperate which makes it beautiful to me "There was not a human soul near. Sad October and her sadder self seemed the only two existences haunting that lane." ^love love love this line. reminds me of a line on the first page of Moby dick (which I've only read the first few chapters of) which goes: "Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth, whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hopes get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street and methodically knocking people's hats off -- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can." the personification of months just hits, and its so delightfully emo lol

[@mckenziekate]

@ oh my gosh I love the quotes you picked out 😍 I’ll definitely have to keep my eyes peeled for your vlog. And yeah I mean that’s the thing with there being so many writers, even if you can see their technical or artistic brilliance, doesn’t mean that it necessarily has the correct ingredients to really “zing” you personally. I need to read moby dick!

[@Faye_L]

Have you read Our Mutual Friend? Dickens had finally figured out how to write flawed but still wonderful female characters by then, so maybe you'd like it better. For what it's worth, though, I'm a huge Dickens fan but don't really like Dombey and Son.

[@mckenziekate]

@@Faye_L it IS very encouraging to hear that u love dickens but don’t necessarily love dombey and son I was bummed bc from everything I had been hearing online it seemed to be everyone’s favorite ??? Our mutual friend is def at the top of my dickens tbr list ! Thank you

[@Faye_L]

@@mckenziekate I'm always surprised to hear someone say it's their favourite! It's one of the mid ones for me. My faves are A Tale of Two Cities, Our Mutual Friend, A Christmas Carol, and Bleak House.

[@mckenziekate]

@ this is great information to have!! Thank you so much for sharing hahah

[@malikamuradova163]

I also don’t like Dickens…I am forcing myself every time 😢

[@mckenziekate]

@@malikamuradova163 lol sameeee